Of Sathya Narayana Raju (later Sathya Sai Baba) it is reported by several devotee writers that he will die at the age 95 and/or 96 (Some places in India a person who is 95, yet is in-the 96th year, is said to be 96 years old.) On various occasions Baba has reportedly said in private that his life would last 96 years [eg by S. Balu, 'Living Divinity' London: Saw-bridge Enterprises, 1981, p. 29] which age he finally confirmed in a discourse in 2000. Yet, contradictorily, in two early discourses in 1960 and 1961 respectively, he gave the length of his remaining life as 58 and 59 years (see scans below). This adds up to a life-span of only either 92 or 93 years!

              

History is replete with self-proclaimed God Emperors, Divine Avatars, World Saviours, reborn Christs... right up to the present day. Millions still believe that this or that person is wholly and fully God. The various Indian modern avatars or divine saviours include Ramakrishna, Meher Baba and any number of other claimants, each having more or less success or failure. In India there are always a surprising number of persons claiming to be avatars... still today.

Add to the above the teaching of Sathya Sai Baba and others that no one can ever aspire to be anything better than servants of the Lord himself (i.e. Sai Baba!) and to work for him selflessly in total obedience to his all-powerful will. This is a teaching that allows for the complete manipulation of persons to do the will of the guru. No more clever way of taking away people's freedom - making them censor themselves entirely and give up all autonomy and all rights - has ever been devised. It is the subtlest of means of gaining power to protect his misdeeds and abuses.

Countless millions of people have, through the ages, grovelled and kowtowed to personages they imagined to be either God in person, or the highest representative of Divinity. One small example, little known nowadays: the Mahdi in Sudan whose followers - imagining themselves invulnerable to Maxim guns - were mown down by the British at Omduran.

Any number of 'Divinities' - whether God-Kings, Pharaohs, Caesars and so on, have come and gone. Claimants to Divinity with multi-million followings are dispersed into the mists of time and almost forgotten but to historians.

We can confidently await the further fall of the highly questionable Sathya Sai Baba, whose adharmic (i.e. 'unrighteous') activities have already been exposed to the world. His claims will not hold, he will not lift mountain ranges or fly through the air. He will not live to be 96 (he has himself said in published discourses that he would live until, age 93, but some fool devotee author got it wrong and wrote 96 and this figure was the one that stuck!). At whatever age he departs this earth, the believers, having been deluded by his many deceptions, including his psychic powers (none of which are not found elsewhere, even today), will find a rationalisation for it, as they do for everything else.

The state of his health is a closely-guarded secret, though his debilities can be seen in that he cannot walk without support and then only a few yards. Were it to be known, for example, that he suffers from osteoarthritis, the consequences for many followers would be further to doubt his claims of perfect health as a concomitant of his alleged divinity, purity, patience and perseverance (which he holds are a guarantee of perfect health!). The large and protective social environment built up around him and his ashrams - which are dependent on the flow of donations - has already suffered consequences as his reputation has sunk. For the poor believers, it will be another of his 'lessons', another 'test of faith' doubtless. Probably only completely credulous 'blind faith true believers' or badly misinformed and deluded followers are now active in supporting him and covering up his many misdeeds, bogus claims, fraudulent 'materializations' and ignorant proclamations and unworldly and misinforming 'teachings'.